HNSC is recommended best practice

Straight from Microsoft – USE HOST NAMED SITE COLLECTIONS – recommended in SharePoint 2010 and preferred in SharePoint 2013

Main reason:

• Uses less resources, only uses one web application pool.
• Allows a seemingly unlimited number of vanity named site collections under one web application – Promotes useability for the business  (e.g. one web app could house finance.mydomain.com, nationalprograms.mydomain.com, hr.mydomain.com etc.)
• Allow flexibility in that vanity names can easliy be changed, without need to export import data, or backup restore, simply change via Set-SPSite – adapts to business change

Previous SharePointpapa posts on HNSC:

Creating Host Named Site Collections

Creating Host Named Site Collections and Set Anonymous

The rest of this blog taken from this Technet – http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc424952(v=office.15).aspx

“Host-named site collections are the preferred method to deploy sites in SharePoint 2013. Because the Office 365 environment uses host-named site collections, new features are optimized for these site collections and they are expected to be more reliable. Learn how to plan for and implement host-named site collections, design URLs, and manage URLs.

In this article:

• Architecture and design for host-named site collections
  • Recommended architecture for host-named site collections
  • Host-named site collections vs. path-based site collections
  • Designing and managing URLs for host-named site collections
  • When to use path-based site collections
  • Using host headers and host-named site collections
  • Mix host-named site collections and path-based site collections in the same web application
• Deployment and configuration for host-named site collections
  • Create a web application for host-named site collections
  • Create a root site collection
  • Create host-named site collections
  • Use managed paths with host-named site collections
  • Mapping URLs to host-named site collections
  • Configure SSL certificates for host-named site collections
  • Use host-named site collections with off-box SSL termination
  • Enable apps in environments with multiple zones
• Migrate path-based site collections to host-named site collections
  • Determine host-named site collections in existing web applications
  • Convert path-based site collections to host-named site collections
• Use multiple web applications with host-named site collections
  • Creating multiple web applications with host-named site collections
  • Creating multiple web applications for host-named site collections
  • Adding virtual IP addresses in IIS ” – Technet